Prepared Piano Project

On November 18th, we released a recording of three compositions featuring a prepared piano on YouTube. Three Preludes showcase an impressive harpsichord with numerous effects. Five Songs combine Baroque texts with contemporary music. Lastly, Seven Images presents "painting with contemporary music" in an experimental composition.

The Prepared Piano project is a free continuation of the now-shelved The Heart of a Dog wandering opera project, from which we have retained members of the artistic team. The new artistic venture is led by composer and director of Portedo o.p.s., Robert Mimra. The aim of this project is to explore the possibilities of the prepared piano in combination with harpsichord, percussion, other instruments, and voice.

The piano preparations consist of four levels: 1. a grand piano played on the keyboard combined with string playing and striking on the soundboard. 2. a standard piano with strings prepared using screws, bolts, insulation tape, rubber, and other materials. 3. our totally prepared piano, with recordings of three pieces provided below, along with a more detailed description of the setup for the completely prepared piano with harpsichord and percussion. 4. our pizzicato piano, which is an armored piano frame fitted with harp strings.

In the reference compositions, we occasionally used multi-track performance, i.e., live playing supplemented by pre-recorded tracks. In two movements, electronic sounds were also used, but this turned out to be a dead end. The endless possibilities of new technologies (samplers, arrangers, effects, mixers, etc.) dilute the already rich sound of the prepared piano, unconventional harpsichord sounds, and percussion.

It has been a part of human nature since time immemorial to search for new sounds. Regarding keyboard instruments, as early as the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci designed his viola organista (in its modern harpsichord version here). In the late 18th century, hammerklaviers featured various mutes — una corda, lute and harpsichord registers, and even a bassoon pedal, which involved placing paper or silk on the bass strings (sic!). In the late 18th century, pianos were built with so-called Janissary effects with up to six pedals. The una-due-tre corde pedal allowed for subtle tonal nuances (used, for example, by L. v. Beethoven — in his Sonata Op. 106 the instruction reads, "poco a poco due ed allora tutte le corde"). In 1844, the sostenuto pedal was added to the sustain and una corda pedals and it was introduced at the French Industrial Exhibition. The experiments of Johannes Pohlmann with the use of shutters — a mechanism for raising and lowering the piano lid — are also noteworthy. In the first half of the 19th century, pedal pianos were used, and for this instrument, R. Schumann wrote Six Studies in Canonical Form (6 Studien in kanonischer Form, Op. 56).

Set "Prepared Piano 1.0"

Set "Prepared Piano 2.0"

Bow Playing on Piano Strings

Playing with an Inverted Bow on Electric Violin

By the 20th century, the piano had become standardized. However, composers and pianists found their own distinctive ways of playing. According to legend, in 1913 Eric Satie placed a sheet of paper between the piano strings during the premiere of his Le piège de Méduse. Percy Grainger was the first to notate strikes with a mallet on the piano strings (Suite In a Nutshell, 1916). Maurice Ravel used a special luthéal mechanism in his piano piece Tzigane (1924) and in the opera L'enfant et les sortilèges (1925). At the same time, Henry Cowell was experimenting with playing inside the piano, for example, in pieces such as Aeolian Harp and Banshee. The most famous promoter of the prepared piano was John Cage, who was, incidentally, a student of Henry Cowell. In 1940 he premiered his composition Bacchanale, where he first used insulation tape, screws, and bolts placed between the piano strings. He gradually developed these radical sound modifications into a sophisticated system. A different sound world was introduced by George Crumb, who experimented with playing directly on the piano strings, placing a light chain on the bass strings, and creating other subtle effects (requiring amplification). On the other hand, the members of the Fluxus group took a more brutal approach when, in the 1960s, they publicly destroyed a grand piano and auctioned off its parts.

The classics of prepared piano ‒ Cage and Crumb ‒ were followed by other composers. For example, the ten-member The Bowed Piano Ensemble, founded by Stephen Scott, where the players extensively used horsehair and other materials to bow the piano strings, along with many percussive effects on various piano parts. In 1993, Sofia Gubaidulina published Der Seiltänzer, where a glass is used to play on the piano strings. In recent years, we can mention mention the young composer Sebastian Suarez-Solis, who experiments with prepared harpsichord. However, the list of compositions for prepared piano is much longer, including theoretical works on the subject.

How the Piano Came to be Prepared

Playing With the Piano Henry Cowell and John Cage

George Crumb: Makrokosmos

Stephen Scott demonstrates the Bowed Piano

As far as we know, with the possible exception of YouTuber Mattias Kranz, players and composers always work with a complete modern piano or harpsichord. The limit is therefore the metal frame inserted into the wooden body of the piano, which is also constructed in various ways by different piano manufacturers. Another limitation is that there are at least 220 strings placed closely together. With the Prepared Piano project, we aim to liberate the piano strings by removing both the keyboard and the action, allowing for direct interaction with the strings. We have also reduced the number of strings to 75, plus 20 treble strings for potential microtonal effects. The lower number of more clearly arranged strings allows for dramatically faster pizzicato playing, the use of chord mallets (e.g. one mallet for three chord strings at the same time), and comfortable use of other types of mallets (etc.). The unmuted strings also serve as resonators. The entire set includes a large five-octave spinet in the Silbermann style and a set of percussion instruments, partially operated by pedals. The harpsichord is used in a traditional way (played on the keyboard) and occasionally for pizzicato, harmonics (flageolets), and in one movement, the use of a light metal chain placed on the harpsichord strings ‒ an effect favored by G. Crumb in piano music.

Six reference compositions are being created for this set, as well as for other instruments and voice. Three Preludes and Seven Images are offered in video recordings. Five Songs are complete in the attached score, along with an audio recording of three parts (one of which also includes video). Six Dances are partially complete, with a four-movement suite to be added ‒ both of these compositions are conceived as the musical component of a dance performance. The final piece of this cycle will be Toccata for voice, violin, harp, guitar, and prepared piano with harpsichord and percussion. Together, the six compositions form a full-length concert program, for which we anticipate amplification to balance the significantly different sound levels of the instruments. The amplification will also enable the reproduction of pre-recorded tracks.

We will publish a report from the recording here at the end of November.

Below is the form to order a new composition.

Striking the Metal Plate

Wine Glasses (4th Movement from Seven Images)

Prepared Piano

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